Oscar Piastri admitted that it would not have been fair to Lando Norris if McLaren had allowed them to swap positions back in the British Grand Prix after Piastri received a penalty that cost him the lead and potentially the win.
Piastri, who is leading the championship, was noticeably frustrated by the 10-second penalty awarded by the stewards. This was for an incident before the Safety Car restart on lap 22 where they determined he braked too sharply in front of Max Verstappen on the Hangar Straight.
He had to serve the penalty during his subsequent pit stop for slick tyres. At that point, Piastri was just two seconds ahead of Norris, but the mandatory 10-second wait in the pit box before any work could begin on his car allowed Norris to gain significantly.
Norris took the lead as a result of this and maintained it after making his own pit stop for slicks one lap later.
McLaren management also felt the stewards` decision was unfair; team principal Andrea Stella later called it `very harsh`. With seven laps remaining, Piastri asked his team over the radio if they would reverse the positions, given their shared view on the penalty`s severity.
Piastri`s race engineer responded three laps later, confirming there would be no team orders to switch positions.
Speaking after the race, Piastri reiterated his frustration with the penalty, which likely cost him the win in his tight championship battle with Norris. However, he acknowledged that swapping positions back would not have been the right thing to do.
I thought I`d ask the question,” Piastri stated. “I knew what the answer would be before I asked, but I just wanted a small glimmer of hope that I might get the position back. Still, I knew it wouldn`t happen.
There was nothing wrong with the situation; Lando didn`t do anything wrong.
I don`t think it would have been particularly fair to swap places, but I felt it was worth asking.
McLaren Encouraged Piastri`s Request Despite Not Granting Swap
Team principal Andrea Stella explained that McLaren`s philosophy of open communication meant they had no issue with Piastri making the request to swap positions.
While the pit wall ultimately decided not to grant the request, Stella noted that they had initially allowed Piastri to maintain the lead on track under the first Safety Car period precisely because a subsequent Safety Car could have allowed him to serve the penalty without losing the position.
As a team, and with both Lando and Oscar, we always tell our drivers not to hold back what they`re thinking. If you have a point, a suggestion, or just want to let us know your thoughts, just say it.
We will then evaluate it on the pit wall, make a decision, and get back to you.
Oscar did exactly what we encourage our drivers to do. He communicated his opinion, and we evaluated it.
“The way we managed the situation today, given the penalty, was to allow Oscar to potentially retain the lead if another Safety Car occurred,” Stella explained. “In such a scenario, both cars would pit simultaneously, Oscar would serve his penalty, Lando would wait and both McLarens would leave the pits in their original order.
But at the point in which we needed to have the transition of the dry tyres, then the penalty was made, and at that stage we thought that we should just retain the natural order.
I believe this approach was fair to both drivers, and I`m confident Oscar understands and agrees with this perspective.”
Gilbert Pendleton